Dr. Orhan KOÇ, General Manager of Disability and Elderly Services, was a guest of the "Voices of Life" program prepared and presented by Sezin ZOR at 15:05 on Friday 08.01. 2021, which was co-broadcast by TRT Turkey's Voice and My Hometown FM Radio.

Program host Sezin ZOR presented the program with the announcement of " Dr. Orhan KOÇ, General Manager of Disability and Elderly Services of the Ministry of Family, Labor and Social Services, who managed to keep the effects of the epidemic to a minimum, especially in disadvantaged groups thanks to the effective measures taken in all institutions and organizations, and who carried out the studies exemplified by the World Health Organization" and discussed the mission and work undertaken by the General Directorate of Disability and Elderly Services during the pandemic process.

Dr. Orhan KOÇ, General Manager of Disability and Elderly Services, who started his speech with the statements "We continue a successful application with the services provided to disabled and elderly people both in institutional care and in family care in an example to the whole world"; "In our country and culture, the elderly and the disabled have a separate place. We started to take measures before covid-19 was widespread for the elderly and disabled in institutional care and with family, we gave trainings on the health and nutrition of our elderly, we took measures to address their needs, we supplied the medical and hygiene supplies needed. Fever, pulse and respiratory follow-ups were performed six hours apart for our elderly and staff staying in the institutions. In February, we banned visits and exits to our organizations, and we tightened the measures from the first case detection.

This was a precaution but not enough, so we made a call to our staff. We offered a 14-day shift and all our staff volunteered. With great dedication, we continue this system to this day. Our staff, with great dedication, successfully continue this important measure away from their children and their families. We know that in many places abroad, the elderly are left to die in institutions, and vice versa. Our elderly and disabled people have always been crowned at the forefront by both their families and our corporate care staff.

We tested our staff at the entrance to the organization and did not take our personnel who appeared to be positive. We shared these measures we have taken and implemented with the World Health Organization, and the World Health Organization has cited these efforts as examples to other countries. We've met all the needs of the elderly. There's such a thing as old triage in the West. This is the ranking of the patients and injured according to their life-threatening injuries and the expected benefit. Unfortunately, they prioritized young people over health measures. They pushed the elderly away. We've had the opposite. We opened isolation organizations on the return of our elderly to the hospital, opened a new isolation organization with a capacity of 2500 and kept our elderly people returning from the hospital under observation for 14 days, we accepted this practice to the organizations after it evolved into negative, we followed this practice closely in all private and official organizations.

In this way, we have significantly prevented the virus from entering the organization, and we have contained the virus within the organization.

Program host Sezin ZOR also has online meetings and online trainings in this process, right? "Yes, we discovered something new during this period of digital transformation. In fact, as the General Directorate, we have been doing digital transformation studies in both disabled and elderly people since 2018. This process once again felt the importance of digital transformation. Access to informative information is especially important for people with disabilities.

We contacted the Ministry of National Education and the Ministry of Health and made sign language information posters for the visually impaired and for the hearing impaired and guided our disabled people along the way. We have prepared and delivered guide leaflets for our elderly and their families, as well as for the disabled and their families. We have made programs together with the support of non-governmental organizations so that our elderly people who stay in homes can continue their healthy and peaceful lives in the same way. In the same way, we organized digital holidays and digital visits."

 Dr. Orhan KOÇ: Accessibility is the Gateway to All Services

After the program host Sezin ZOR reminded that you are also giving awards related to accessibility, Dr. Orhan KOÇ said, "Yes, we have made legal arrangements for the disabled. The 1500-point Disability Rights Act was passed. Our President declared 2020 the Year of Accessibility, and we held a joint competition with all public institutions. There were 1075 project applications. We put these projects to the public vote and over 200,000 reviews came in. We have observed the very serious participation of universities, local governments, private sector and public institutions, and in this process, we will hopefully distribute the awards with the participation of our President.